Cerberus Said to Name Goldman, JPMorgan, BofA for IPO

By Ruth David and Aaron Kirchfeld -
Apr 4, 2013

Cerberus Capital Management LP, the
private-equity firm led by Stephen Feinberg, is moving ahead
with an initial public offering of its German retail-property
assets after hiring three banks to manage the sale, people with
knowledge of the plan said.

Foreign investors are seeking to profit from soaring demand
for German property assets. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised
about 1.3 billion euros in January with the IPO of residential
landlord LEG Immobilien AG.

Deutsche Annington Immobilien AG, Germany’s biggest
residential landlord and a unit of Guy Hands’ Terra Firma
Capital Partners Ltd., in February chose JPMorgan and Morgan
Stanley to help manage its initial public offering, two people
with knowledge of the decision said.

Spokeswomen for Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan
declined to comment on the transaction.

Retail Purchase

Cerberus is one of Germany’s most active foreign real
estate investors. In 2011, the firm bought 45 stores from Metro
AG (MEO), Germany’s biggest retailer, including 42 Cash & Carry
wholesale shopping buildings. The properties, located in large
cities, had 900,000 square meters (9.7 million square feet) of
rentable space.

In 2007, Cerberus bought 112 buildings leased to the
retailer Woolworth, according to a statement by Linklaters LLP,
a law firm that advised Cerberus on its investments.

The FTSE EPRA NAREIT index of German property stocks has
gained 16 percent in the past 12 months, while the German
benchmark DAX Index has gained 12 percent.

Bayerische Landesbank, a German state-owned lender, is
selling 32,000 homes valued at about 2.4 billion euros in what
would be Germany’s largest property sale in five years. The
company plans to complete the sale by the end of this month,
people familiar with the transaction said in January.